Erin Rae opens the show for Blind Pilot on Aug. 15, 2024, at Churchill School in Baker City.

BAKER CITY — Blind Pilot’s show in Baker City comes just a day before the release of their newest album.

The band’s fourth album, “In the Shadow of the Holy Mountain,” releases Aug. 16.

Their concert is Thursday, Aug. 15, at Churchill School, 3451 Broadway St. Doors open at 6 p.m. Erin Rae opens the show.

Tickets are $30 in advance at churchillbaker.com or $40 at the door.

Blind Pilot formed in Portland in 2007 as a duo when songwriter Israel Nebeker and co-founding member Ryan Dobrowski went on a West Coast tour — on bicycle.

Twelve years later the band has released three studio albums — “3 Rounds and a Sound,” “We Are the Tide” and “And Then Like Lions” — plus the new one, and sold out concerts across the U.S., Europe and the U.K.

Band members are Israel Nebeker, Ryan Dobrowski, Kati Claborn and Luke Ydstie. The new album includes contributions from longtime trumpeter/keyboardist Dave Jorgensen and vibraphonist Ian Krist.

“We’re so thrilled and honored that Blind Pilot has added our little independent venue to their tour,” said Brian Vegter, who owns Churchill with his wife, Corrine. “It’s a big deal for us at Churchill and for Baker City as a destination for incredible talent like Blind Pilot to choose to come to our town.”

Blind Pilot’s new album is the first in eight years.

“I went through a few years where I wasn’t able to write — I tried therapy, I read books on writer’s block, I went on writing trips, but nothing was helping,” Nebeker, frontman for the band, said in a press release.

Then he challenged himself to write an entire album in a month, and “brought those songs to his bandmates with a newfound sense of receptivity.”

“I told myself that whatever songs came through in that month would be for the love of the band and music we make together,” Nebeker said. “Instead of being controlling in the studio, I wanted to let the songs live and breathe with the band as an entity. By the time we finished, it was the most joy we’d ever had in making an album together.”

Erin Rae

Erin Rae grew up around Nashville, Tennessee, with her musical parents, but she didn’t envision a music career.

About her junior year of high school, Rae showed more interest in music.

“I started asking my dad if I could sing with him. That became a thing we did, and he’d teach me a chord on the guitar here and there,” she said.

Then he gifted her a Martin guitar for graduation.

“I guess we have him to thank,” she said with a laugh.

She attended one semester at Tennessee Tech — then her path changed when she was home on break.

“I came home and my older brother took me to an open mic,” she said.

At that spot, open 24 hours a day, she said musicians swapped songs all night.

“I think this is pretty magical,” she remembers thinking.

Supportive of artistic endeavors, her parents gifted her guitar lessons.

“And I started on that path,” she said.

She’s toured consistently since 2017. Her genre, she said, is “Americana, singer-songwriter, folk adjacent, with psychedelic and country influences.”

She’s released three full-length albums, and this year has been releasing new singles.